Grace Rwaramba worked as a nanny for Michael Jackson's three children. Photograph: Kay Nietfeld/EPA
The nanny who looked after Michael Jackson's three children said today the star had his stomach pumped "many times" after taking a dangerous cocktail of prescription drugs.
Grace Rwaramba, 42, said : "I had to pump his stomach many times. He always mixed so much of it. There was one period that it was so bad that I didn't let the children see him ... He always ate too little and mixed too much."
The revelations, in an interview with the journalist Daphne Barak, came as a second postmortem was believed to have taken place on the orders of the Jackson family in an attempt to answer many of the questions surrounding the pop star's death.
Los Angeles police yesterday confirmed news reports that Jackson had become "heavily addicted" to the powerful painkiller OxyContin and had received an injection of Demerol, another opiate, an hour before his death.
Detectives are expected to interview Rwaramba about whether she helped administer the drugs. Coroners in the case said yesterday there was no suspicion of foul play but toxicology tests would take several weeks.
The nanny said she once called in Jackson's mother, Katherine, and sister, Janet, to attempt an "intervention" to persuade the singer to recognise his addiction to painkillers.
But she said Jackson accused her of betraying him: "He didn't want to listen; that was one of the times he let me go."
Rwaramba, who is from Rwanda, worked for Jackson for more than a decade, first as an office assistant and then as the nanny to his children, Michael Jr, known as Prince, aged 12; Paris, 11; and Prince Michael II, seven, nicknamed Blanket.
Her grim account of Jackson's final months is detailed in an interview with Barak, published in the Sunday Times and the News of the World.
She said the singer's lavish spending was out of control, and that he led an increasingly nomadic lifestyle, moving from country to country and hotel to hotel.
She was dismissed for a final time last December but still visited the children. When she saw them in April she claims Jackson was so broke she had to buy "happy birthday" balloons for Paris on her own credit card.
On an earlier occasion the singer had sent her to Florence to buy antiques for $1m. "We didn't even have a home to live in. So we had to put the antiques in storage," she said.
Rwaramba, who flew from London to Los Angeles yesterday in the hope of being reunited with the children, could potentially find herself at the centre of a billion-pound custody battle. There are conlficting reports as to whether the mother of the eldest two, former nurse Debbie Rowe, is seeking custody. The Jackson family are reported to be offering Rowe visitation rights.
"I took these babies in my arms on the first day of each of their lives. They are MY babies," Rwaramba told Barak.
She claims she was sacked by Jackson because she was getting too close to the children but had fully expected to be reinstated soon.
She said he would regularly fire her then beg her to return as he was unable to look after the children or himself.
She told Barak: "These poor babies ... I was getting phone calls that they were being neglected. Nobody was cleaning the rooms because Michael didn't pay the housekeeper.
"I was getting calls telling me Michael was in such a bad shape. He wasn't clean. He hadn't shaved. He wasn't eating well. I used to do all this for him and they were trying to get me to go back."
One theory behind Jackson's massive drug regimen is that he was taking them to combat the stress of his forthcoming 50 shows at the O2 arena in London. The nanny said: "Fifty performances! I told him ... 'what are you doing?' He said, 'I signed only for 10.' He didn't know what he was signing. He never did."
Rwaramba also claims the Nation of Islam gained a growing influence over the singer's financial and personal affairs. She says the sect told the singer it cost $100,000 (£60,000) a month to rent the mansion he was living in until his death, but she believes similar properties were on the market for no more than $25,000 a month.
The sect supplied bodyguards to the singer and allegedly intimidated auction houses that were selling Jackson memorabilia.
"Michael had no idea about money," Rwaramba said. "He got a proposal to make an appearance in Japan for $1m ... By the time everyone took their share, he ended up with $200,000."
Whatever money Jackson had he would hide in black rubbish bags under the carpets at the Los Angeles house, according to Rwaramba. She said Katherine Jackson rang her in London at 7am on Friday to ask where the money was, possibly to stop it being stolen.
The children will stay with their grandmother and grandfather Joe at the family home in Encino, California, sources close to the Jacksons yesterday told the TMZ entertainment website, which broke the news of his death,.
They said: "We're told the family is 100% behind this, feeling that Katherine and Joe Jackson are the only people who can help the children understand who their father was, help them grieve, and teach them to deal with life in the spotlight."
But US legal experts speculate that the mother of the two eldest children would stand the best chance of winning any custody battle. Iris Finsilver, the lawyer for Jackson's former wife, Debbie Rowe, stated that her client would seek to look after the children.
Rwaramba claims the children had a difficult relationship with their father. She said: "I used to hug and laugh with them. But when Michael was around they froze. I really miss Blanket. He makes me laugh. Only recently, he decided to do a concert for me. He was so cute, singing Billie Jean and other songs by his father.
"I was laughing so hard. Prince and Paris were playing around. It was such a happy moment. Then suddenly Michael walked in and the kids just looked frightened. Michael was so angry.
"Michael always got angry. But what was most shocking to me is that the children don't even have a teacher. They can't play with other children and don't have a teacher to help them learn about the world."
Deepak Chopra, a close friend of Jackson, told the News of the World: "The kids love Grace and kids called her mum. And she was the only person that told Michael the truth about his life."
>>>>I so believe this, cause all the timing is accurate.& I can understand why JANET or any of the family got into his business, after all he was grown.
